I'm very grateful for all of the votes in this! Its a bit mawkish to say so but the forum has been (and I'm sure will continue to be!) a great resource and place to come to over the years as a place to chat and write about interests when it seemed like there was nowhere else to do so, or at least nowhere else where I actually felt as if I could make any particularly meaningful contribution to discussions. I'm particularly fond of the forum set up, which has always felt as if it promotes discussion (even if it can also promote empty posts or just links to elsewhere, both things that I've been guilty of over the years!) compared to say a blog, which needs an individual authoritative voice running it and creating content for commenters to then discuss, or something like Twitter, which really feels useful only as a tool for promoting a particular project or sharing pre-existing content with 'followers'. Both of those types of social media also have their upside (I've never signed up to Facebook, which is probably my contrarian, paranoid aspect coming through! So I can't comment on whether that has any great film resources!), but I still think that this forum provides the best way to interact, talk and debate over films.
I have always found it particularly exciting that the "Criterion forum" has never been restrictively focused purely on the Criterion Collection, but has seemed to use that label and our collective interest in the films that are released there as sort of the backbone for even wider ranging discussions on all sorts of topics about films, and even topics beyond home video and cinema too. I remember a number of years ago that there was some concern that this was a sort of 'proof' that Criterion were losing their status because just their monthly releases could not keep the attention of the members of the forum focused entirely on that label (and of course Criterion have had their high and low points since then too!), but I've always felt that was a sign of the forum growing larger and perhaps more independent from just one label. Still retaining that core of an interest in the Criterion Collection, but growing to add in the other labels also doing work that was just as important to anyone interested in building a collection of films. And that felt as if it allowed the chance to that chance for posters to go off on wilder tangents for a while or pursue other personal projects in posts while knowing that we all had those same kinds of core interest in titles that have been released over the years.
Just look at the Lists Project section - a place that sort of began as a way of tidying up every arbitrary list of ranking films that a member could come up with into one easily section that could be easily passed over by those in search of actual content has over the years turned out lots of interesting material allowing the forum to in some ways break away from 'just' what is coming out at the cinema or the new releases (important as those both are) into more general discussions around films that we probably would never have had the reason to talk about otherwise if it wasn't for that arbitrary restriction of, say, talking about only films from a particular decade or genre. The results of the votes are often interesting (especially when we can see films in the decades list rise and fall over the three times that we have gone around over this last decade. Something that captures a particular snapshot of the forum and its membership too!), but the discussions around individual films are where the real fun can be. That is something that I could imagine might not have happened at all had lists just been ruled out entirely without any exceptions in a more restrictive online space.
Despite any moderation that is done to keep the place running, as a user of the forum I've always found the place to be really open to individual members driving discussions in directions that interest them, and I've enjoyed reading interesting discussions in threads about subjects that I have had no knowledge in and could never be able to meaningfully contribute to! And that itself has done more than anything over the years to spur me on into watching films and importing discs that I likely never would have ever known about otherwise. Just as I think that my posts on particular films can only really exist with the material that I am looking at and responding to, I'd probably guess that the majority of my posts would never have come about without the discussions going on here either!
Films have made me consider things in ways that I never would have otherwise, and the forum has also done that for me too in getting me thinking much deeper about subject matter that I probably never would have done on my own. I'm often as surprised as anyone that some of my stream of consciousness posts come across as readable at all! Which is why the votes over the years have been more appreciated as, while I think the best writing people ever do are when they try and write for themselves without tailoring it to their audience too much, I have sometimes worried if particular posts are OK or just spamming the forum threads! But I try to make it so that the posts usually have at least one idea in them that might be useful, or at the very least silly and fun! Even then it is very exciting when there are those moments when I feel as if I have drained a film of all potential meaning that I could possibly find, and then someone else makes a post that makes me reconsider the exact same film in an entirely different way! There have been a few times just over the last couple of months when I've had that experience of being reminded that a criticism of a film is less about an individual review or post, but about the dialogue that can be had around that piece of work (I guess this goes back again to my feeling that you need a stable core of something that everyone can then elaborate on in all sorts of ways!)
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Anyway this is already a far too long and gushing thank you (now I know how Sally Field felt at those Oscars!), so in order to keep up the fun and in the tradition of
a post in "The Official Idiot Poster Thread" that helped me realise early on that I could have a bit of fun with the forum, I thought that I would create a few potential ideas for films out of the various signs and notices that I came across at work and during my commute home! Yes, I was standing on a train platform and very bored when I thought this up, but I thought it might be fun! Think of the following as either my attempt to do a Banksy and subvert all of the demanding notices or bland corporate logos that we see all around us every day into something more playful
or my attempt to woo any potential Hollywood producers with my brilliant film pitches (à la
Ron Howard pitching that time travelling movie ("You can't get rid of the pie! The pie is the heart!") to Brian Grazer in The Simpsons)!:
"Press When Illuminated" - a young autistic boy has a paranoid fear of contact until an unorthodox case worker, himself on a final warning for his maverick working methods, finds a way to give the boy the keys to unlocking his new potential through the power of interpretative dance
"Connect to Power" - a newly elected Senator finds himself disillusioned by the realities of modern power politics when he travels to Washington to take up his position. When his slightly eccentric and irreverent younger brother arrives and starts a torrid relationship with an aide to his opposition rival, can our senator resist the urge to turn the situation to his own advantage? Potentially starring Michael Douglas and Ryan Reynolds.
"Toner Kit" - in a futuristic world where lonely people are provided with robotic personal carers, can a cranky geriatric man mourning the loss of his wife learn to tolerate his new partner
especially when it arrives in a model with a wrongly specified skin colour? Potentially starring Morgan Freeman and Alicia Vikander.
"Ultrasound Scan Rapport" - a quirky and ultimately uplifting medical drama which follows two patients as they meet in hospital for treatment, following their ups and downs as their treatment progresses and the way that the consequences of their growing friendship ripples out amongst their relatives, friends and local community. Will the mysterious young woman working as a personal massage therapist provide the key to cementing their bond, or be the catalyst that will tear their relationship apart just when it is most needed? Starring Madea and friends and directed by Woody Allen.
"Caution: Speed Humps" - a reckless young man is given an ultimatum to settle down or lose his inheritance by his wealthy parents after yet another failed relationship. They enrol him in a speed dating class which leads to many hilarious, wacky and bawdy complications!
"Minor Injuries Unit" - meet the elite squad who operate under the radar to tackle thieves and terrorists using non-lethal yet slightly painful methods of interrogation and neutralisation of their targets. Can the young rookie learn to overcome his squeamishness in order to inflict his first paper cut in order to find out the codes to defuse a bomb threatening the city? And will the newly transferred grizzled SWAT-team commander be able to adapt to the low key tactics of the Unit and be able to keep himself from accidentally breaking the necks of various suspects at the crucial moment?
"Bums on Seats Please, Shoes on the Floor" - two housewives band together to start a fashionable footwear company. It fails the haute couture test but suddenly the shoe is on the other foot as a surprising new business opportunity arises amongst the local homeless population. Will our heroines learn that the value of footwear is only worth as much as the feet inside them? Find out this Labor Day!
"Northern: A Serco and Abellio Joint Venture" - when two Alaskan huskies Serco and Abellio lose their mother to ruthless hunters, they face a thousand mile trek across the wilderness to reach their estranged pack. The beautiful CGI animation is only enhanced by the endearing voice of Steve Carrell as the voice of Peter the Penguin, a character who only appears during the hallucinations that our main characters have as they succumb to exhaustion, and the heartbreaking new song duets by Tom Waites and Alicia Keys: "Husky Melody" and "Woof, and I'll Be Right There By Your Side".
I'm sure that you are all glad that I'll never get close to the tools of the filmmaking process now!
). Also surprised by Jellyfish Eye's poor showing. I thought that was clearly the forum's new punching bag, I guess we all quickly forgot / realized we hadn't seen it yet to trash it enough.